Polyphony Digital & FIA Launch Partnership

Polyphony Digital, makers of the Gran Turismo series, and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) have launched a long-term partnership.

The FIA is governing body of motor sport worldwide, holding the rights to all major racing world championships, including the Formula One World Championship, the World Endurance Championship, the World Touring Car Championship as well as the World Rally Championship.

The first part of the collaboration contains Gran Turismo 6’s tracks as four of the Playstation 3’s racers venues will become FIA-certified, becoming the first virtual race tracks to get an official sanctioning.

The virtual track inspection was held by FIA Officials in Polyphony Digital’s Tokyo offices, more GT venues will join the list of certified tracks in the future.

The second stage of the partnership will see the launch of an official FIA Online Championship in 2015, more details on that will be revealed in due time.

Phil Oakley

Dreaming here, and would need ACO license, but an official WEC game, complete with Le Mans, would be amazing.

EZehnder

Le Mans 24H is now officially licensed in Project CARS. I recently tested the GT3 and LMP2 cars and they are excellent. I’m eagerly awaiting multi-class setups in the weekly builds.

Bakkster

That’s still a long way from the WEC. One LMP2 and no GTEs. Still a blast, but not what an official license would bring.

Christopher Trees

I’d still prefer the pcars version, due to sound being superior.
And I’d rather be able to race a plethora of GT3 cars that pcars has, than the few GTE cars that officially race at lemans. On top of that they end up doing similar lap times anyway.

Shaddix

GTE should be normally faster than GT3 :D^^

Christopher Trees

GTE=better on the straights GT3=better in the turns… And in the end do similar lap times.
Essentially GTE is heavily regulated and power restricted but with less aero and more expensive with less makes.
Gt3 restricted still but on a balance of performance set of rules with greater aero and freedom in design. Also much cheaper.

Bakkster

Probably good enough on the GT side to just turn off the GT3’s ABS, but that still leaves the game with just one LMP out of two classes.

EZehnder

There’s a massive GT3 category which is near as makes no difference your GT category in WEC. There are several (3, I believe) LMP2 cars and several LMP1 cars as well. It’s easily the most complete WEC-style lineup of any sim out there.

Bakkster

I’ve only heard the Oreca/Alpine as their LMP2, which makes for just one car. Are there more that just haven’t had their official licenses announced yet?

And while GT3s are certainly fun, with the suggestion of a full WEC license they really don’t cut it for any proper fan. But that’s not what pCARS is going for, I’m not going to hold that against it.

Christopher Trees

Oreca and alpine are two different cars. The Oreca 03 and the alpine a450. While the alpine does use the Oreca chassis it uses bespoke bodywork/aero.

Bakkster

Which year of the cars does pCARS have? In 2013 the two were 100% the same. They announced they planned modified bodywork, but at Le Mans this year the only difference between the A450b and the 03R was a slight change in headlight shape. Oreca says ‘no technical difference’, it’s nothing but a different coat of paint.https://twitter.com/Oreca/status/477960890026065920

But even if you count them as two separate cars, two LMP2s and some GT3 cars is not a proper Le Mans. You’re missing a whole class, have the minority of the second, and are using GTs are a completely different
spec. It can still be fun, but the root of this thread was asking for a full WEC game, and 2 P2s sharing the same chassis doesn’t cut it.

Does pCARS have historic Le Mans prototypes? Wasn’t there a Group C car or two?

BC72

If I remember correctly, there are 10 LeMans winners in the game. In addition, nobody has said that they are done with announcements. As a matter of fact, they have already been teasing another major one.

I don’t share your concern, but to each their own… 😉

Bakkster

Thanks, that’s what I was wondering. Are the Audis and Oreca the only ones with the official licenses signed, while the rest are generically named for now?

These are all licensed. I realize this may not meet your expectations, but we’ll see what is yet to be announced/licensed.

There are also some fictional P1/P2 cars in the works.

Christopher Trees

The 2 p2s accounted for 80% of the p2 field this year

Bakkster

Well, 75% because there were only 4 full-season P2s in the WEC. In ELMS and at Le Mans they were about 50% of the field.

EZehnder

I don’t get what your issue is with the setup, though. If a sim has only a single car in each modern WEC category with the ability to race on the same track that would be more than any modern sim has. Project CARS has several of each type of WEC car class. What’s the issue?

Bakkster

First of all, I’m not holding this against pCARS. It’s a broad sim, not the WEC sim. My point is only that the presence of pCARS shouldn’t preclude wanting a fully fleshed out WEC sim, or that a WEC-only game wouldn’t better fit that. It’s not a problem with pCARS (or any other sim), just something else that would be cool if a developer dived head first into.

I’d argue pCARS looks like it’s only got two modern* classes represented with one** car each (Audi LMP1 both pre and post 2014 rules, Oreca LMP2) and missing the GTs. Forza 4 had what I would consider a decent selection of Le Mans machinery with multiple LMP1, LMP2, and GT2 cars that would be elligible in 2011 at release, plus they had the Oreca FLM-09 prototype challenge cars. Sadly they were squandered with the 16 car, 2 class limit, but that’s precisely why I think a WEC game with that level of car selection plus pCARS features (dynamic lighting, 55 car field, etc) would be cool. That’s not what pCARS is, which is also cool, and certainly a better choice for development resources.

*Modern being since the WEC has existed in its current form, since 2012, though any car since a rules rewrite would count
**The Oreca and Oreca with Alpine headlights counting as one

EZehnder

Just wait until release gets closer. I’m sure you’ll get what you want.

Alan Dallas

Yup, all pCARS needs now is Sebring then we’ll have the Endurance Tripple Crown(24h Daytona, 12h Sebring, 24h Le Mans).

Roy Rki

Throwing endurance events on tracks like Spa, Nurburgring, Suzuka, Bathurst… together in one season would make a great career experience. Does Pcars allow that or does it only come with pre-defined season calendar? Option to choose on which events you wanna compete each season would be great.

RichardHessels

What money can buy…

AdamJonas

Another huge step to professional simracing? 🙂

Blatant Abuse

Too bad the simulators don’t have console money to throw around.

Francis Cappellazzo

Oooooooh, hopefully they make the most of this partnership!!

Mar Mar

sooo…..no GTR3?

kronik

With regard to the modding scene, the worst thing that could happen.

Virtual tracks will FIA-certified, companys like PD will pay for this “certificate”, the FIA keeps the finger on the licenses and free modding content are banned in the future.

Money rules the world……luckily I have GTL. 🙂

ftrracingtv

Just another way for runin people good talent they want to show off

David Dominguez

This won’t ruin anything, it’s just a marketing move. Having a virtual track with FIA approval means … nothing. It just means that random GT players will think that their game is awesome because their tracks have some sort of useless certificate from FIA.

The FIA online championship should be the main article here, that could be finally the first really popular virtual racing championship, if they put some good effort.

ipitydafool

An FIA sanctioned Virtual racing league would be great.

Aleksander Turnsek

They can’t just copyright the track. Sure you may not use its real name but you just can’t charge someone for making a model of something that is a part of the land.
AKAIK you can recreate any fixed object in complete detail, but for moving objects you have to make at least 3 visual differences. For both cases you may not use its real name.

ipitydafool

The FIA do not own the tracks, so I can’t see how this deal makes sense.

It’s just a badge of approval, nothing more I would imagine. The FIA can’t force Spa for instance not to sell its name to other games companies.

kronik

Hope you’re right. I fear that the owner of some circuits should be “sensitized” for the topic licensing and royalties. 😉

Ben Lee

Umm… what? The digital tracks are getting FIA certification? So… what on earth does that mean?

Will they all have to have massive run offs and tarmac over all the gravel traps?

Roy Rki

Yes, and Tilke will be the main designer…

Alan Dallas

So FIA chose the platform with the least correct physics model and sound system over tracks that are digitally correct. I guess 1 out of 3 is good enough for FIA.

Roger Wallentin

I agree on the sounds, but physics are quite good IMO and so are the tracks.

PC sim like AC has higher fidelity physics but GT5/6 physics are pretty darn good for road cars at least. Problem though is I guess that races will be with the spec race cars which do not drive as realistically as the road cars IMO. Here AC or iRacing does a better job.

Alan Dallas

I’d have to respectfully disagree. I’d call GT5/6 physics “Mediocre at best.” with my PS3/DFGT combo. Of course that’s in comparison to using a DFGT with PC sims. Never had a chance to try Forza on the 360 so I can’t compare. I’ve only ever owned Playstations and Gaming PC’s. I guess you could say PC Sim racing has spoiled me.

Roger Wallentin

I have actually compared the same cars IRL with the cars in GT5 and it is surprisingly accurate, both in feel and laptimes. Accuracy will ofcourse vary between cars, but most of the “high profile” premium road cars have very good and realistic physics and behaviour.

For example a couple of years back I drove and drifted a C6 Z06 Vette IRL and shortly after tried it in GT5. The balance and transition into oversteer is very authentic and unique to that car. The throttle needed to transition into oversteer in each gear was also very accurate, as was the “snap” back into traction from oversteer.

I use a high end modded wheel, shifter and pedals and have been driving all majors sims on all platforms for the past 15 years. I am also very fortunate to drive a lot of fast cars IRL.

http://batman-news.com Leeman

Simple answer:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Marc Collins

Yes, the same motivation that drives 99% of their other decisions. Long live exact replicas of the best real-world tracks minus the official name and advertising (neither of which contributes in any way to sim racing realism or enjoyment),

MirceaRad

No track is owned by FIA and FIA can’t stop the owners to sell the rights to everyone. An FIA “certified track” means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for a sim. We can still see Spa, Nurburgring, etc. If you look at Project CARS’ licensing of Le Mans, it was done with Automobile Club de l’Ouest, who is the part owner of Circuit de la Sarthe (at least the permanent track and according to Wikipedia) and organizer of the 24h Le Mans race. It has nothing to do with FIA. And ACO can sell their right to everyone, AC, iRacing, GT6-7-8-9, etc.

Alan Dallas

Well to be fair it’s not so much a License that FIA is handing out. It’s them putting their ‘Seal of Approval’ so to speak on the digital versions of the tracks in GT. With enough money I guess any sim maker could approach FIA and say “Hey, can we have your Certification for our tracks?” Only problem here is PD’s partnership with FIA looks to be exclusive. Unless I’m reading it completely wrong.

Think of the certification like that of audio equipment mfgs/vendors who submit their equipment to THX for Certification. Which is simply that, a cert that says their equip meets a specific standard.

GutZ

Licencing tracks is kinda useless imo and possible stupid, i mean what is licenced at the end is the name of the track, anyone is free to model a track exactly like the real one and give a name like hockenheim or nurburg, these are not the name of the tracks, are the city names and no one holds licence of city names, obviously real track advertising cant be used but i cant care less.

Roy Rki

Real tracks, their names and logos are already licenced. Just see AC and PCars progress in this area, how they have to gain rights for each track before putting it into a game.

But i have no idea what FIA-licenced track means for GT. If that means banning “dangerous” fantasy tracks and replacing them with Tilke-drome versions, that would be pretty dumb indeed.

GutZ

I dont think people can licence a piece of land, even the layout design, the process would be very confusing to say that a track exactly like that is licenced, what if the virtual track have blue grass and not green? Anyways alot of games in the past have being doing real layouts with diferent names even polyphony did with cote d’azur wich is monaco, the same layout i guess PD didnt pay anyone to comercialize it.

Bakkster

I don’t think it’s even that. The tracks that got FIA certs are real world tracks that already have them. It sounds like it was as basic as “yup, the runoffs and barriers are the same”. If they eventually make more realistic fantasy tracks, props to them, but they definitely haven’t yet.

Godo

We have to get 51% share from FIA, come on guys !! We can’t let that happened…

Silvio

really? i don’t like this.

Sergio Carretas

… as long as they don’t release the game for other platforms, looks like FIA selling themselves to Sony … f@*k them!

Roger Wallentin

Great that we get some “official” virtual racing going!

Platform and title could be better but could be a lot worse as well. I think if Poly properly fixes the sounds and tweaks physics a bit in combination with laser scanned tracks for GT7 on the PS4 this could very well be the benchmark do-it-all sim with the largest content on the market.

In our minds having this on AC or iRacing etc would have been “better” and more in my personal view, but given AC’s current state and market share I can fully understand FIA’s decision.

I’m sure the platform choice wont last forever either 🙂

Chris Wright

With the eco friendly mess they’ve made of the real thing, who wants the FIA ruining this hobby too. Interesting that they went with the worst sounds, having lowered F1 sonics to the same kind of vacuum cleaner soundtrack that Kaz has been serving up for years.

osella

Wow this is seriously the first time I see you post something negative.
Up to now I thought you’re almost a Ned Flanders kind of type lol with pink glasses who always sees the good and ignores bad.

Anyway I agree, this is actually bad news.

Dean Doucette

Hey-Diddly-ho, neighbor! The Ned Flanders reference is hilarious. However, over time I have found Chris’ comments to be right on the mark and in-line with my thinking. I enjoy reading his posts.

osella

Yeah well he seems to be an always positive thinking guy, very optimistic. I’m a bit of pessimist sometimes myself (more often I’d say “realist”) although browsing the web would be certainly more pleasant with more people like Chris.

Chris Wright

? 🙂

kkgrandi

“Yet another smoke and mirrors exercise.”

…such as?

A racing simulator does not have to be the best simulator in order to provide excellent organized racing, as iRacing has proved over the years. We certainly don’t have an abundance of organized, serious simracing out there. In that regard, I welcome this addition, hoping also that it will result in PD making a more serious effort to improving the physics & racing event portions of the title.

What PD has to do better than they are now, is to GREATLY improve the online experience to a level that would facilitate an “official” online racing series. The user base is already big and competitive enough for such activities.

Chris Wright

“Smoke and mirrors” refers to any product licensing that confers some sort of pseudo-approval just because someone ponied up the money to pay for it. In other words it’s meaningless.

Deatroy

Agree aswell.

“having lowered F1 sonics to the same kind of vacuum cleaner soundtrack that Kaz has been serving up for years.” –> cool 😀

Alan Dallas

I have to agree. Which also begs the question: Why does PD feel the need to have the FIA ratify that their tracks are correct?

My opinionated answer would be: Because that’s all they got right. :p

Joe Martin

Have to agree. This seems like they are just buying a badge to put on the game case, not going through any kind of certification process that means anything.
“You must meet these requirements to be certified”
looks at checklist to see:
-did company being certified pay the bill?

-end of checklist.
Its like saying “sure, your plane is certified safe, because the pilot paid the fee, nevermind the details”.
Hope i’m wrong, but unless they are certifying the ps4 version of the tracks that we haven’t seen yet, then this seems like just plain marketing.

Mozzie

I think you cannot blame the FIA for the noise, “issue” that is currently being discussed.
If you are not happy with the sounds one should look at the car manufacturers, (particurlarily Renault) who were pushing hard (except Ferrari), to have turbo motors. And, to add to that, Honda is coming back because of the switch to turbo, which I am sure helped sway the decision to bring back turbo.

The 80’s, arguably one of F1’s greatest era’s and I think the sounds of the engines are not much louder than what we have today. Skip to 8 minutes to hear the sounds.

And if it’s not ratified, the FIA won’t use it for their competition. How does that affect you? or your access to drive that track for example?

Chris Wright

You need to get out more mate 🙂

Chris Wright

With the eco friendly mess they’ve made of the real thing, who wants the FIA ruining this hobby too. Interesting that they went with the worst sounds, having lowered F1 sonics to the same kind of vacuum cleaner soundtrack that Kaz has been serving up for years.

Deadlydeal

FiA = Fail in All 😀

Josh Desotell

I’m not totally surprised. Sony did hold the F1 game rights for a long time.

Nick1

They’ve revealed further details on the Online Championship, it has 3 rounds, with the finalist going to the FiA awards handout party.

Marco Hooghuis

FIA-certification for digital tracks…

Sounds like snake oil to me.

Alexandre Martini

“The virtual track inspection was held by FIA Officials in Polyphony Digital’s Tokyo offices” this is supposed to be a joke, right?

http://iamkittx.blogspot.com/ KittX

Alright, so F1 modding content is already prohibited by FIA, so now the same will be with any GT, prototypes, etc, and the tracks.
Great…

Professional Operator

Really bad news if you ask me.
FIA and Sony toghether can ruin this hobby for all of us.